Feedback Loop: How To Use Your Social Media Channels To Create Relevant Content

 

I've read lots of articles that outline why marketers should be making video content customers want to watch, without giving any clues as to how to discover and develop ideas for relevant content. I think social media should be viewed as an interactive community, with real-time feedback. Here's three easy ways to generate video ideas from your social media channels:

  1. Read the comments - Comments provide unfiltered feedback on what your customers think of your brand and products, good and bad. You can use these to discover holes in your marketing content plan, or frustrations customers have with your products (and your competitors).

  2. Ask them questions - Make your social media accounts a two-way conversation. There's a tendency to think that we can only use social media to push product and messages; to treat it like advertising. Want to know what they think of that new widget? Ask. If no-one replies, then it's probably a good indication that your followers aren't listening to what you're saying.

  3. Run a competition - Everyone likes the chance to win something. Offer a product or cash prize incentive to get feedback. Make the questions specific and measurable. For example, you could ask customers to describe their ideal product, or how do they use your current products.

Next you'll need to analyze the feedback and find any recurring themes and topics. Qualitative Data Analysis Software can automate the task if you're dealing with large data sets. From there you can start to generate video ideas using the storytelling framework I've outlined HERE

As an example, we discovered from a Facebook survey for a sink manufacturer that despite all of the marketing collateral available, their customers still had a hard time deciding which kitchen sink to buy. Using their own customer’s stories and words, we were able to generate four simple videos that customers could use to start their sink buying journey. As a bonus we were able to create other sink related videos. At 31,000 views, the most watched video has been an instructional video on "How to clean a sink", something none of us knew was needed!

 
MICHAEL CURWOOD